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| One of several images of H.P. Blavatsky adorning on the walls of the SFTS Lodge |
Excerpts from Virginia Hanson's "What’s Practical About Them? The Three Fundamental Propositions of The Secret Doctrine" (Published in "The American Theosophist" July 1974):
In 1885, when The Secret Doctrine was in preparation, the Mahatma K. H. wrote to a German doctor, a member of The Theosophical Society: “The Secret Doctrine, when ready, will be the triple production of M. [the Master M.], Upasika [Mme. Blavatsky] and the Doctor’s most humble servant, K. H.” [1] Thus we have the assurance that this great work comes, in part at least, from as high a source as we are likely to find on this planet ...
H.P.B. herself said of these three propositions: “It would not be in place here to enter upon a defence or proof of their inherent reasonableness, nor can I pause to show how they are, in fact, contained in every system of thought or philosophy worthy of the name. Once the reader has gained a clear comprehension of them and realized the light which they throw on every problem of life [italics mine], they will need no further justification in his eyes, because their truth will be to him as evident as the sun in the heaven.” ...
But few of us, I think, would ever have become interested in Theosophy at all if we had not realized that back of everything that we see and hear and touch and taste and smell lies an abstraction – a “no-thing” which is not “nothing” but the hidden source of all things.
The first proposition speaks of this hidden source – an “omnipresent, boundless, and immutable principle” which, says H.P.B., is “the one absolute Reality which antecedes all manifested, conditioned being.” This is the “infinite and eternal cause . . . the rootless root of ‘all that was, is, or ever shall be.’ ” It is the Absolute, “Be-ness rather then Being.” [5]
It is worth our while to ponder this, not being turned aside by impatience or frustration, or by H.P.B.’s statement that this Be-ness is “beyond all thought or speculation.” ...
The second proposition states the absolute universality of the law of periodicity through which the One Life operates, the flux and reflux, the ebb and flow of activity. [8] H.P.B. adds that the alternations of day and night, life and death, sleeping and waking, are so common and so universal that it is easy to realize that the law of periodicity is one of the absolutely fundamental laws of nature. She refers to the universe itself as the periodic manifestation of the One Reality postulated in the first proposition.
So the law of periodicity extends to the outermost limits of anything we can know, and beyond. The universe is maya, she tells us, because its manifestation (and therefore the manifestation of all things) is temporary ...
The third proposition affirms the fundamental identity of every soul with the universal Oversoul, and the “obligatory pilgrimage of every soul through the cycle of incarnation or necessity.” [10] Further, this proposition makes our pilgrimage dependent upon “self-induced and self-devised effort” with no special privileges or gifts save those we win for ourselves.
Up to the time we reach humanhood – and perhaps for many lives after that – progress is accomplished through what H.P.B. calls “natural impulse.” This is evolution itself, which ever moves forward and cannot ultimately reverse itself. But from the time we awaken to the fact of our individual responsibility, the whole thing becomes a “do-it-yourself” project. Wherever we are going, we have to get there by our own efforts; we can’t ride on the coat-tails of anyone else. Although we have only to ponder this to recognize its truth, we still have the realization that we travel in the company of other pilgrims in mutual affection and helpfulness. Our enterprise is a common one, although our individual discoveries and accomplishments are unique expressions of that enterprise.
